I love a good ending. There’s nothing worse than reading a book or watching a movie and being left without answers. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what’s so appealing about the Resurrection story. It appears as the perfect ending to the greatest love story ever told – Jesus’s death for the salvation of humanity. It’s a story of truth, intrigue, suspense, deep sadness, and unparalleled jubilation. The story’s triumphant conclusion is celebrated on Easter Sunday in patterns of pastels, florals, and hats brimming with artful bows. There’s rejoicing in churches, backyard egg hunts, and at festive meals. Even nature participates in the jubilee with its mosaic of showy blooms, cerulean sky, and birdsong. Yet amid this seemingly universal joy, what Easter really offers us is a new beginning.
Coming out of the Lenten season, the 40 days marked by the black ash of reflection, repentance, and fasting, it’s easy to mistake the celebratory nature of Easter as the reward of a happy ending. After all, in many ways, it is; the fulfillment of Jesus’s mission is complete. Forgiveness and redemption are available to us, as is the promise of eternal life. While it appears to be the best part of the story, it isn’t the whole of it. What happens next is the crux of the crucifixion and resurrection. It’s the pivotal time to decide what we will do with the new life Christ offers us — whether we experience a rebirth or merely recycle the life we already know. The redemption the Resurrection offers is not automatic. It requires our participation.
Desperate to move forward but refusing to let go of what keeps us stuck, we often stay trapped in the same old story. We spend decades acquiring material possessions, status, and prestige. We hold on to these things as a measure of this one unique life of ours. Yet our worth was determined by Jesus’s crucifixion. He set the value and paid the highest possible cost for each of us. To him, we are priceless. In return, we are asked to follow God’s greatest commandment to love him and our neighbor. Read more